1. The first requirement in the production of any crop is to see that soil conditions are as close to the optimum as possible. Barley prefers well-drained soils, light to medium in texture with a high pH

Seed-bed Preparation. Oats are said to be the best cereal to follow the ploughing up of grassland but this is only true if the grass is turned in timely and well, the furrow slice being properly inverted and no large air pockets left which tend to accentuate drying out.
Ploughing depths should be 6 inches except where grass or surface trash need to be buried deeper and then 8-9 inches plough depths may be required. Were early ploughing has been carried out it is often only necessary to give the land a light-medium harrowing to obtain the desired tilth in the top 3 inches of the soil.
Drilling. Optimum drilling depth with oats lies in region of 1.5-2 inches. When seed-beds have an irregular surface tilth, drilling depth becomes uneven and in order to ensure that all the seed is covered, it will often go in well below the optimum in many areas and this will be responsible for patchy stands.
Harvest. It has been pointed out that for straw to have additional feeding value the crop should be cut early and this will mean bindering one or two weeks before full ripeness. Very tall crops may be cut earlier than usual to make the harvesting easier and to avoid risks of late lodging and this will also apply to crops which have been undersown.